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Any New Fishing Reports?


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What's the status out there? We've seen many posts on the river thaw process, but haven't heard much on the bite. Any personal reports?

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I was up fishing Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday the walleye fishing was slower. We landed only 10 walleyes- talked to some guys who were getting more like 20 a day.

Sunday was 40mph wind we ancored up for sturgeys and ended up landing 10 in the deep holes. 1 50" and some 40"s and a handful of smaller ones.

Water temps were 36-38

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Fishing Report

March 31st, 2015:

I talked to some groups earlier this morning when it was cloudy and a little chilly on the River and they said they weren’t catching fish and they didn’t see many people around them getting fish. Sounds like this afternoon was a little bit better but still not getting many for the day. A few slot fish we did hear about. Grant’s dad caught a 27 and 3/4 inch walleye and a guy fishing with him finally caught his first sturgeon so he was very excited! Hope that the fish bite tomorrow with the warmer weather and hopefully it will be sunny all day.

March 30th, 2015:

Some groups did good today and sounds like everyone had a lot of fun on the River. We have a young boy here who was so excited to get out there fishing and was hoping to catch a sturgeon and it sounds like he got a nice one at 58 inches and even a slot walleye too! I love seeing young kids so excited to go fishing! Heard of a few other slot fish but sounded like it was about a 15-20 fish day for most groups.

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We fished yesterday, landed at Vidas. I felt it was pretty busy for a Tuesday. Trucks and trailers parked all the way to Hwy 11.

Our boat was on the water by 8 and fished until 6. Boated 11 walleye and 2 small pike. We had 3 slot fish, all at 24". Vertical jigged, drift jigged and pulled cranks.

Based on what we saw from other boats along the river catch rates were similar. Fished from the Rapid River down East of the church. No spots were better than any other. Surface temp hit 40 once the sun came out late afternoon.

There were a few fishermen targeting sturgeon and noticed fish being caught. Also saw walleye fisherman battling them.

Reports at the ramp were similar, got a few reports from fisherman on the river days prior and the bite seemed about the same, results at Frontier sounded about the same as Vidas.

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Fished out of Frontier yesterday afternoon...got on the water about the time the sun started peeking out. Two reports at the ramp were real bad. One boat caught three, the other five. With the low, slow river, my favorite spots were void. One spot downriver a ways that is normally deep and swift had a pretty good bunch of fish. One 25" was the only "good" one. At least half the fish were what I consider river fish....very gray and most with warts. The others had good color. There were several 12" and under fish too. Usually don't see many of them. No other boats in that area. Only saw one fish netted in the other areas tried. 18' had the most fish although the two biggest were caught shallower pulling plugs. It was an odd day on the river saved by one good spot. Starting to wonder of the lack of fish on the south shore during the winter is affecting the river bite. Over the years, pushing over shore ice was often the best of the year. Now it seems lots of guys talk about it being better later. Just a thought. Sure was nice to be in the boat.

Good luck.

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Just got home last night. Fished tuesday and Wednesday for sturgeon. Fishing was ok tuesday as we landed 10 sturgeon and a few eyes. I talked to lots of boats and the reports were pretty much the same as posted earlier,slow. The best report I got was 6 fish. Didn't see very many caught either and there were a lot of boats out and I fished quite a few spots. I did see several walleye anglers hooked up with sturgeon as well as quite a few sturgeon fisherman hooking up. So I think the sturgeon fishing was better than the walleye fishing. Although I'm sure that some walleye boats did rather well. I either didn't talk to those boats or I didn't get an honest report. But the walleye guys are usually alright sharing their report with the sturgeon boats. Good luck to anyone heading up. The weather doesn't look that great but might be what the fish need? Never know.

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Ditto the reports above. We went out of Vidas Wednesday and boated a dozen eyes and lost a couple sturgeon. Put in around 7am and only got 1 eye as we work down stream until around 10am when we hit a couple pods of fish biggest two were 23". Went down to where we could see the bridge a little after noon and caught a couple more. There were a few boats down there catching one here and there. That was the first we saw any other boats land fish. Got our last one at 2:30. Went east of Vidas after 3:30 trying several spots and saw about 8 fish caught and several sturgeon, but our boat dried up. The weather was fantastic by then, so it was a bonus for sure. Talked to a couple COs and they had similar or worse reports from the boats they were checking. Talked to a couple other groups and they did the opposite as far as time of day was concerned. Nothing in the morning near Vidas, but got a meal east of Frontier in the afternoon.

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Just got back today and two of us fished for 3.5 days. Caught 8 on the half day then caught 21,28,28 fish. Put in at Birchdale and the ramp had about 20 boats a day, the other two were packed. We used about every tactic possible: casting, vertical jigging, trolling jigs, trolling cranks, pitching plastics shallow, 3 ways, ripping raps, bouncers/spinners, and yes even drifting with slip bobbers. Cranks ruled in 10 to 13 foot of water trolled at 1.5 mph. Only caught 11 keepers and only fished in Canada (we only kept our four below 18). Biggest 27.75, 27, 26.5, and seven 24 and thirteen 23 and the rest literally averaged 20 inches. Our last days catch was filled with big fish and 1/3 were white lake fish. Water clarity is around two foot and this week will be phenomenal. We missed a lot of bites, Good Luck!

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Received reports the last 2 days from a reliable no bull friend of a friend who is a long time Rainy River veteran. Pretty safe to say expectations should be around 25 fish per boat for a full day of fishing. Some probabaly do better others worse. More bigger fish today vs. yesterday.

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Fished Sunday and Monday with about the same results listed above. Fished from 1-7 Sunday in the hurricane force winds. I never got a bite. 1 eye for our boat. Fished west of Vidas on spots we know. Sunday night got late and we got on the water at the crack of 9:30am, east of Vidas. Fish were going fairly decent as soon as we got there. I think we boated 17 total between 9:45 and 2:00, with 10 being 21-26", most were 24" like everyone else. An amazing number of fish from that year class in LOTW right now. Rainbows caught all our fish. Glow red jigs with double buckshot rattles dominated the catching and bites. Best spot for us was 20-22ft. Any less...hardly a bite.

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Fished last Friday Saturday and 3 hrs Sunday morning. Caught 135 for 3 guys jigging minnows and some plastics water temp was 36.4 and clarity was 20 to 24 inches. Now today April 3rd up again for today and tomorrow. 3 guys again and only caught 13 water temp was 39.2 and clarity is 10 to 12 inches. Is it clarity or the cold front idk water temp should have dictated more action than what we had. Talked to others on the river not much action. Hopefully it is the cold front want to come up again next weekend and weather looks more favorable. O yah fished between frontier and vidas last weekend and today. Went and checked landing out in the gap still had ice.

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Well I was gonna wait but the weather on Wednesday was just too nice for yardwork so I figured what the maynard and peeled outta Roseau about 230pm. Quick stop a McD's and Outdoors again and We're at Vidas about 4pm with lots of folks peeling out and the reports all pretty much on the slow side.

Got a Buddy who was a Sturgeon Virgin so I figured why not just head east to a reliable hole and throw the hook. We got anchored down backward in 22fow and I had him set-up with a Sturgeon rod and drowning a 'meatball' round about 430. I dropped a blue 3/8th's with a big dead Shiner kicked back and enjoyed the weather. Got bit in about 10-15 mins and pulled up a nice 19 incher. Long story short the Walleyes were slow.. I had 7 bites the whole evening landing 2 19's, 2 round 15, 1 at 22, and a green and slimey 30 inches or so. 6 fish for 7 bites a good hook-up ratio for my first openwater jigging trip anyhows !!

I never moved from this spot as the main mission was to get my friend his first Sturgeonfish and this is a reliable spot. A crew of 4 anchored down a bit upstream were getting a few eyes and I saw a couple of littls Sturgies come into their boat. 4-5 other boats drifting thru and around this hole were pulling eyes now and then as well as some smallish Sturgeon on their jig sticks. I spoke with a cool group of 4 drifting nearby about 6pm and they'd gotten a few eyes as well as a couple Sturgeon so patience was the name of the game and they offered words of encouragement to my bud in the front of the boat drowning the meatball. Low and behold about 10 mins later he says Norm is that a bite ?.. I look over to see a little tap tap on the rod tip then his line goes slack and I say reel fast, Yeehaw he's finally hooked up. I holler out 'blind squirrel finds nut' and the nearby boats give out a cheer as they knew my bud had been oh so patiently waiting for his shot. so 15 mins or so later we get a 54 incher in the boat. No monster but a good enuff one for his cherry popper.

So all in all a great day fishing, catching, and weatherwise and all missions accomplished. Shakedown cruise, river boat good to go, de-rusted my jigging arm and my friend pulled his first Sturgeonfish. Life is good.

Gonna get a bit more serious this coming mid-week with them Walters. Heck the weather forecast for next weekend is looking so darn nice I may even have to go play bumper boats with the all the weekend Terrorists !!

Have fun all.. Man them fishes are gonna go nutzoid anyday now.

Regards... fiskyknut

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Myself and 2 buddys drove up last Sunday night. Fished all day Mon-Wed and 1/2 day thurs. Very slow Monday and COLD!! only boated 25 fish with 6 between 4 and 6 lbs. Picked up Tues with 50 fish but nothing huge. 1 fish about 6 lbs. Wed was really good. boated 75, including 3 sturgeon and 1 little musky. Three fish over 7 lbs and or biggest of the trip, 10.27lbs 29.75 inches. Thurs was good till the gales started blowing. over all not a bad trip. Have had much worse.

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April 6th, 2015:

The Wheeler's Point Access is open to all boats as of this afternoon. Sounds like the water is open past Wigwam Resort and we have heard reports of the fishing being better towards the west than heading east.

I talked to one group that came in after fishing for a few hours this afternoon and they headed just east of us and caught a 24 inch, 22 inch, and a 19 inch.

Another group fished just west of the International Bridge and figured they caught about 35 fish today with about 20 of them before 11:00am. Their biggest walleye so far is just under 27 inches hoping tomorrow they can get above that number.

A group of 2 guys caught just a few fish today but they didn't fish very long as they drove during the night and figured they would get a good night's sleep and then fish hard tomorrow. They stayed closer to town for the day and just checked out a few spots.

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Pretty good fishing wed-Friday this week. 39 degree water temps. Averaged 45 fish per day, could have had more on Thursday but fished sturgeon in the afternoon. Fished quite a few areas all the way from Vidas out to Wheelers point. Sturgeon were everywhere, must be a banner year. Had a number of walleyes over 20 inches, our biggest was 28 1/2 inches. Gold jigs were best up at Wheelers but the rest of the river preferred white or pink for us.

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Sportland_Bait - where did you go out of?

Sounds like a lot of the fish are still closer to the lake.

I'm heading up for the final few days here.

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Fished Friday in town out to gap

and then frontier back towards vidas. Fishing was tough caught 23. Started out Saturday at vidas stayed with in 1/2 mile up stream of landing. Caught 67 way better day 11 over 5 lbs biggest 28.25 many more 20 to 24 inches jigging and casting. Colors didn't matter. Sunday fished 6 to 11 caught 29 biggest 4 were 25 to 26.5 many again 20 to 24. Boat next to us had a double 27 and a 29. water clarity 25 to 30 inches temp 44.5 now is finally the time.

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CA, we caught some fish out of wheelers point but they were smaller. Our best fishing for numbers and size was close to Vidas, I would recommend fishing within 2-3 miles east or west of Vidas landing.

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Slow for us today from Vidas to a couple miles east of there.

We boated a dozen in the 19-22" range. Didn't see a lot of fish caught.

Half on 1/4 oz jigs and Berkley Ripple Shads and half on 3 way rigs w/ bright colored Husky Jerks.

Hoping for a return trip for sturgeon next week.

Brian

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